Our store is devoted exclusively to local products with a focus on the Pacific Northwest. Eighty-five percent of our products come from Washington, 10% from Oregon, and 1% each from Utah and Montana. A large portion of our Washington products are made within two hours of Seattle.

We wish to make it as easy as possible for our customers to put their money back into their local economies. Studies have shown that money spent at local businesses and on local products sticks around in local circulation longer, contributing to local schools, jobs, taxes, wages, and other communal needs. For every $100 spent, $45 is redistributed into the community as compared to just $14 at big chain stores.”

We call ourselves a “general store” because it harkens back to boom-town general stores that functioned as the cultural epicenter around which the town’s community would gather. People came by regularly and often hung out to talk about the issues (or gossip) of the day. In this vein, we want to return to our American roots – the idea that we, within our communities, can be self sustainable instead of the current model that stretches product production and consumption across the globe. This current system harms everyone involved, from the producers, to the workers, to the consumers.

We wish to change that. We believe that everyone can benefit and even prosper by returning to our self-sustainable and community-oriented roots.

Our goal is to expand into a one-stop shop for everything local – from fertilizer to canoe oars to first aid to furniture. Eventually we plan on expanding to other cities as well and have those stores be local to the areas they’re in. We want to make it as easy as possible for everyone to “live life local.”

“For it’s #TDThanksYou surprise, the bank gave a $20 bill to every customer in more than 1,000 banks across Canada on July 25.

Four branches in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver set up the special Automated Thanking Machine which gave customers money, flowers and gifts.

The bank also pre-selected more than a dozen regular customers at their local branches who they knew would be “particularly delighted by a special experience,” Chris Stamper, SVP Corporate Marketing atTD Bank Group, told BuzzFeed in an email. “Our local branch employees know their customers really well and often have close relationships with them. Some have been through tough times and some are just wonderfully kind and caring people.”

The bank asked these customers to come in to “test out a new ATM.” “They had no idea what was in store,” Stamper said…”